Hot Streak

My hot streak is over. My four months of perfect health has ended. It all came crashing down Sunday night. I had spent a hectic but nice weekend with my first houseguest, Anna. We'd finished lunch at the guesthouse and I had put her on a bus back to the big city. I was lounging around on the computer for a few hours and then exhaustion hit me. Nevertheless Edison and I went to visit our coworker Jeanne at her house. I drank my tea, ate my biscuits and started in on a mandarin orange thinking the fruit would reinvigorate me from my rude position of lying down on Jeanne's couch. I got through half of the tiny orange but just didn't have it in me to finish it because all I wanted to do was lie down. Jeanne chastised me for not finishing the orange and went into her usual lecture of poor nutrition equaling sickness and death. I followed orders and finished it. Then scamper, scamper. Sure enough Jeanne had a rat living in her house as of the last week. It was running from the bedroom to the kitchen. Ah! Running rodents being seen by lantern and flashlight are always more frightening than if we actually had electricity to see them clearly. We mocked Jeanne that the rat would curl up in her bed with her to sleep tonight. Then my exhaustion turned to nausea. Next thing I knew the orange and Jeanne's dirt yard were meeting each other. I've only vomited about ten times in my life so I was surprised and appalled all the same time. I was extremely dizzy, nauseous and tired. There was no way I was making the 5 minute walk to my house. Jeanne graciously let me sleep in her spare bedroom, really more so she could monitor me throughout the night. It was a night of fitful catnaps. Around 2am I woke up to very loud rustling. I shined my flashlight over to the box in the corner of the room and low and behold I was sharing my bedroom with the RAT. There was a hole bitten through the bottom corner of the box and apparently Mr. Rat couldn't get comfortable in his bed in there because he was rustling around quite loudly. I have actually lived with rats before because my old roommate had them as pets. I figured I knew how they would react to certain things so I left my flashlight shining on the hole, thinking it would prefer the darkness of the box and stay in there. My imagination was going wild with a massive, fat rat with bulging red eyes. The fever I was running was probably contributing to this level of terror. Soon after that rat made an appearance. It looked more like a tiny field mouse. Initial terror was over. Now I just wanted to make sure that thing didn't end up in bed with me.

The next day was spent in bed. I was still dizzy and nauseous, breaking a fever every once in awhile, pounding headache, achey, with absolutely no appetite. We have our own Peace Corps doctor in Kigali that we can consult and go to at any time so I kept him up to date with my symptoms. Because I live so close to the city he urged me to come in just so he didn't have to irrationally worry that I had malaria. Luckily I have a wonderful site-mate who didn't want me fainting on a bus alone so Edison came along. And here's where that good old VIP American status comes in. We were walking into town to find a bus when I see one of the larger Volcano buses (Volcano is a bus company here). Larger buses are NEVER at site because only the small buses travel these rural roads. Then we realized that a group of health practitioners from all over the world had been visiting our hospital earlier today. They were already loaded up on the bus waiting to leave. Should we ask for a ride? Couldn't hurt. Our instant ticket on is literally written all over our faces. I offered to faint or vomit on the road beside the bus to really seal the deal, I'm just that giving. Turns out I looked sick enough for them to take pity and allow us to ride their bus back to Kigali. Just before the bus was about to pull away we got called over by our boss', boss' boss. Think Office Space and the memos. He was driving over to Kigali in his beautiful Land Cruiser and had room for two more. He drove us right up to the Peace Corps office, avoiding the hustle and bustle of switching buses and then walking 1/2 a mile down the road to the office.

Then as if my luck couldn't get any better I walk into the office and see my long lost friends from the forest. The married couple from my group living in the most remote site. They don't get out much. Unfortunately there was a bicycle accident and they were just getting everything checked to be completely sure it was okay. Even though I wasn't much fun it was a nice visit. I also got to run into my training manager, Mup. He gave me a huge hug and then ordered me to not die. Mission accomplished.

It is still undetermined exactly what I had but my energy has gone back up, the fever hasn't come back and my appetite is slowly coming back. Thanks to all of you who sent me messages saying feel better. Apparently telling my mom equals everyone in the world knowing in the next 6 hours! I'm back at site now and have essentially spent all week resting and not doing any work. My house is a mess and I can't wait to get back into a routine. Of course I'm heading to another training next week so normalcy will need to wait yet again.